External HDD has locked up twice in past three days...time to worry?

[reubs]

I've been leaving my external HDD mounted and running almost continuously lately b/c I've been trading and transferring large files. Twice in the past three days it's locked up completely, and I can only unfreeze the entire system by powering it off completely.

I've verified the disk using Disk Utility, and everything checked out pretty well there. Is there something else I should do to make sure it's not about to crash, or should I just turn it off so it can cool down at night and stuff?

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

 

[oceanmonster]

Turning it off at night is a good bet. I think that what probably happened was that the drive got warm and stopped transferring data to the mac which caused the freeze. If it happens again i would move all the files to you mac hd and reformat using disk utility and using the 7 pass security reformat. But make sure you data is backed up first!

 

[mad jew]

I agree with turning it off when possible. Also, try a different USB/Firewire cable. As cables age they can lose some of their insulation and subsequently not deal with the heat of transfer so easily, which may cause the disk to freeze in Finder. If you're using USB and have the option of Firewire, always use the Firewire.

 

[reubs]

I'm on a Macbook, and I use the only firewire port that I'm provided with. I'll start turning it off at night, but I wish there was a way to make it sleep/idle when not in use and wake up when data is ready to be written.

Before running Transmission and Bittorrent, I could leave it on all day and it would be cool when not being used and only heat up when I was using it to write to/save from/etc. Anyone know of anything like that?

 

[mad jew]

Well, if you're using file sharing apps then it'll be in use almost 100% of the time. Such is the nature of file sharing. Can you put it in a cooler, more ventilated spot?

 

[reubs]

Not really. It's in the most open area possible. Turning it off at night and stuff won't be a problem. It won't be the end of the world.

Thanks everyone for your input.